Jen knows
tattooed, blue-haired Jack Norris is trouble the minute he opens his front
door. And being a mortician in the avante garde East Side of Providence, Jen
has seen a lot. Jack has recruited Jen’s teenage brother Drew to play drums for
his less-than-respectable punk band, and Jen has no choice but to follow their
gigs to keep her little brother out of trouble. But when Drew goes missing, she
finds herself in the awkward position of asking for Jack’s help. Shocked that
he agrees, Jen decides she may have misjudged him. Worse, she might even like
him.

But when Jen is
brutally attacked, she awakens in the hospital where a Sid Vicious look-alike
greets her with the news: she’s dead, and he’s the reaper assigned to take her
away. Yeah, not so much. Refusing to leave, Jen’s spirit watches helplessly as
her loved ones suffer, powerless to ease her family’s grief or prevent the
police from accusing Jack of her murder. Desperate to help them, Jen convinces
the reaper to bring her back. But reanimating corpses isn’t as easy as it
looks, and neither is finding a killer before it’s too late…

EXCERPT

Providence, Rhode Island

Was
it a full moon? Because it seemed like crazy hit town and we got flooded. The
funeral home was packed with more bodies than usual. I’d spent the past half
hour explaining to a grieving family why an open casket really wasn’t the best
option for their grandmother who’d been dead for over two weeks. Believe me, it
wasn’t. I’d never been so happy to lock the front door.

Dad
and I were cleaning up the prep room when my nineteen-year-old cousin Ethan
appeared in the doorway with his hand shoved in a bag of chips. Like all the
men in the family he towered over me, a height that was punctuated by another
three or so inches of reddish-brown white boy ’fro. “You guys want the bad news
or the really bad news first?”

The
beginnings of a migraine pulsated in my right temple, growing more insistent by
the second. It was now after ten o’clock at night. The only thing I wanted was
to shower and get ready for bed.

Dad
closed the stainless steel cabinet where we kept all the bottles of embalming
chemicals. “Just lay it all out there.”

“Man,
you guys are no fun.” He stuffed another chip in his mouth, then wiped his hand
on the front of his Naruto T-shirt. “All right. We got another stiff, and
Drew’s at some shady party getting hammered.” Ethan grinned.

“What?”
I said. “Drew is…what?”

“You
know, getting sloshed, shitfaced, cocked, drunk—”

“I
know what it means, you ass.”

Dad
looked at me, frowning. “Isn’t he supposed to be working on a science project?”

“What,
like how many beers does it take to get to the center of a—?”

“Ethan,
knock it off,” I snapped. “Yes, he was supposed to be working on a science
project. I should’ve known.”

“Right?
Nobody does homework on Friday nights.”

“You’re
really not helping.”

Dad
sighed and slumped his shoulders. “Well, one of us will have to go get him.”

“Why
don’t you guys flip for it?” Ethan held a quarter between his thumb and
forefinger and waved it in front of my face. “C’mon. Heads, Jen gets him; tails
and Uncle Andrew does it. It’s foolproof.”

Foolproof?
Ha. Right. Try suckered. Dad and I looked at each other and shrugged. My
sixteen-year-old brother deserved the mother of all ass-kickings. Was it wrong
that I was hoping for tails? Tails meant filling out some paperwork and
escorting a body from the hospital morgue. It meant no aggravation. That body
wasn’t going to argue or give me an attitude. My brother?

I
climbed into my car, wondering why I always had to chase after that little
puke. Maybe I’d seriously pissed someone off in another life. My fate seemed to
be to relive this scenario over and over, and it didn’t look as though it was
going to stop anytime soon. I grumbled to myself all the way there, made a
couple of wrong turns, backtracked, and took the wrong exit off I-95. It didn’t
help that my boyfriend, Craig, called my cell while I was lost.

“Why
didn’t you pick up the phone?”

“I
just did, didn’t I?”

He
sighed. “Where are you?”

“Drew
took off, OK?” I snapped. “I need to find him.”

“Why
do you bother? The little bastard’ll come home when he needs something. Leave
it to your dad.”

“But
Dad asked me to do it. He’s working late tonight.” I didn’t dare tell him we’d
flipped for it.

“Jen,
you’ve got to get away from that family. They walk all over you, and you just
let them.”

No
matter how dramatic he made it seem, there was a grain of truth to his words.
Still, I didn’t want to hear it. I shouldn’t have to defend my family to my own
boyfriend. “Look, they’re my family and I love them. We take care of each
other.”

“If
that’s what you want to call it.” He snorted. “Fine. Whatever. Not like you’ll
listen to me anyway. Call me tomorrow.”

I
chucked the phone into the backseat and swore under my breath.

The
neighborhoods went from decent to downright seedy pretty quick. Worn
triple-deckers and chain-link fences lined the streets. I pulled up to the curb
in front of a white, two-story house pockmarked by peeling, cracked paint. It
had a small porch in the front and a garage off to the side. Cars were strewn
across the front lawn like confetti.

I was
ready to drag my brother out by the hair if I had to. What if I was walking
into a crack house, about to be robbed and raped and murdered and thrown into a
dumpster somewhere? I closed my eyes and exhaled. The music blasted so loud the
walls shook. It would be miraculous if anybody even heard me knock.

Surprisingly,
the door swung open right away. A tall, shirtless tattooed guy with blue
liberty spikes poked his head out. His gaze traveled my body, stopping briefly
at my chest before resting on my face. A wave of pungent smoke wafted out from
behind him and almost bowled me over.

“Uh…hi?”
He spoke as if trying to figure out whether he was supposed to know me or not.
“Can I help you?”

I
squeezed out a smile. “I’m looking for Drew MacLellan. Do you know him?”

He
shrugged, a slight smirk forming. “I might. I know a lot of people.”

I was
about to rattle off a smart-ass retort when something rustled in the bushes a
few feet away. Instead of the cat I’d been expecting, a pair of legs stuck out
from underneath a large rhododendron. I turned my attention back to the
blue-haired guy. He followed my line of vision.

“Well
that’s a relief. I guess I found Dave,” he said with a goofy grin.

“Excuse
me?”

“My
buddy, Dave. He’s tripping his balls off.” He nodded toward the bush, still
grinning, then raised his voice another notch. “Right, Dave?”

Dave’s
weird, high-pitched laugh sounded more like a hyena than a human.

Nice
rack? Really? It had been less than five minutes and I already wanted to hit
this guy. My face heated and I hovered somewhere between anger and
embarrassment. “Is there anything you do know?” At this point, I didn’t care if
I sounded rude. “Can you give me an answer that doesn’t include maybe? Or I
might?”

“Probably.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.

“Clever,”
I muttered, exasperated. “Look, I just need to know if Drew is actually here.”

“Are
you his girl? You look a little old to be dating a high school kid. Not that
I’d blame him.” He gave me another once-over, his gaze lingering on my breasts
again. “Just sayin’.”

I
crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes. “Yeah, well, you look a
little old to be hanging out with a high school kid. And I’m not dating
him—he’s my little brother. Just sayin’.”

Blue-haired
guy doubled over laughing and, after what seemed like an eternity, stood and
extended his hand, still snickering. It took me a moment to realize he actually
wanted me to shake it.

“I’m
sorry. I was just giving you shit. I’m Jack.”

Reluctantly
I reached out to meet his hand.

“Damn,
you should see the look on your face.”

I
pulled my arms tighter around my chest.

“Hey,
chill out, princess. What’s your name?”

“Jen.”
I tapped my foot. “Now, how about my brother? Where. Is. He?”

Jack
laughed so hard he spilled the remainder of his beer all over the front of his
pants. “Nice to meet you too, Jen.” He said my name slowly as if it was a word
he’d just learned and then motioned for me to follow him into the house.
“Drew’s here. Come on in.”

The
place was a living, breathing advertisement of what not to do when you’re a
kid: one loud, smoke-filled hellhole. The music vibrated inside my chest, and
the voice from the speakers asserted that punk rock’s not dead (at least, I
think that’s what he said). It was your usual garden variety of social
misfits—punks, freaks, and possible hobos. They sprawled over a living room
filled with beer cans, ashtrays, and beer cans being used as ashtrays. It
smelled like the party had broken out in a gym locker room—one filled with
sweaty, unshowered bodies and beer-soaked cigarettes.

I
surveyed the room. A couple made out in the corner. The girl was tall,
voluptuous, and between the plaid skirt and purple hair, looked like Betty Page
had swallowed a rainbow and regurgitated a brightly colored clone of herself.
She had her legs wrapped around the guy’s waist while they more or less screwed
with their clothes on. I shook my head and looked away. Another girl with a
shaved head sat on the edge of the sofa, smoking a small metal pipe and
giggling hysterically. A guy with red plaid pants and an orange Mohawk sat on
the floor and rocked back and forth with his eyes closed. Heck, there was an
entire collection of pharmaceuticals scattered all over the coffee table—in
plain sight, no less. My stomach flipped and I tried to ignore the feeling
crawling beneath my flesh. Definitely not my crowd.

Jack
pushed his way through the maze of people, and I followed him down a narrow
hallway, praying it wouldn’t get any worse.

We
entered a cramped kitchen where a group of five guys sat at a small round table
covered with beer cans and playing cards. One of them looked up at us,
cigarette hanging out of his mouth, his eyes squinting as the smoke drifted
back into his face.

I
shot him a dirty look. What an asshole. Then I spotted my target sitting at the
table with his back to me. He started to turn toward us and was just about to
take a swig of his beer when his eyes met mine. He froze mid-drink, a can of
Natural Light hovering just out of reach of his lips. His eyes widened.

Every
pair of eyes in the room focused on me. I felt naked, like I was standing under
the world’s brightest spotlight holding a sign that screamed LOOK AT ME, but I
shoved those nausea-inducing feelings aside.

“Do I
even have to explain what’s wrong with this scenario?”

He
didn’t move from the chair, but he did place the beer back on the table and
push it away—as if that somehow negated the fact he’d just been drinking it.
“Jen, c’mon, don’t be such a bi—”

And
there went my last nerve. Embarrassment forgotten, I strode over to the table and
whacked him on the back of the head, hard enough to rattle his eyeballs and
elicit a grunt. He flinched and the beer can toppled over, spraying its
contents across the table.

“Ow!
Jen, what the fuck?” He rubbed the back of his head. The room erupted into
laughter. “Just listen, all right? I—”

I was
fully aware that this embarrassed him—probably a fate worse than death for a
sixteen-year-old trying to be the super cool badass he thought he was. I also
didn’t care. I grabbed a fist full of his shirt and jerked him toward me until
his face was inches from mine.

“No,
you listen, you little shit. I had to drive halfway across town to find you.
I’m tired, I’m pissed off, and if you don’t get out of that chair and walk your
ass out to my car right now, things are gonna get a lot worse for you.”

“Hey,
take it easy on the kid.” Someone laughed.

“MacLellan,
dude, she’s gonna kick your ass,” said someone else, and then followed up his
comment with a whistle. Both someone and someone else were adding to the serious
list of grievances that grew inside my head.

Drew
glowered at me, still rubbing his head, but rose from the chair. “I’ll see you
guys later.”

We
walked back through the house, and it wasn’t until we got to the door that I
noticed Jack was following us.

“I’m
sorry. We didn’t realize how late it was getting, or I would’ve brought him
home.” He had his hands shoved in his pockets.

Yeah,
I was sure that was exactly what he had been thinking about. Not only did I not
believe him, but I wasn’t sure he was in any condition to drive, either.

“Whatever.”
I pressed my lips together in a thin, tight line to prevent an onslaught of
insults. “He’s old enough to know when he’s supposed to be home.”

I was
just about to turn away when the door flew open. A guy stumbled out and puked
over the porch railing while two of his buddies cheered him on. I remembered
tripping Dave and his bush and shivered, my own gut clenching, when I realized
the puker hadn’t missed him by much. Gross. I gritted my teeth. The last thing
I needed was to sympathy vomit my way back to the car. Did I mention I couldn’t
wait to get out of there?

Jack,
who hadn’t even appeared to notice the spectacle, nodded to Drew. “See ya
later, MacLellan. I’ll call you in a couple days.” His eyes fixed on mine and
that smile returned. “And again, it was nice to meet you, Princess Jen. Maybe
next time you’ll stay for a couple beers?”

I
didn’t answer, but offered one of those fake smiles I reserved for special
occasions because it meant fuck you. There was no way in hell I was going back
to that house, and neither was Drew for that matter. Jack stood in the doorway
and watched us leave.

“Fuckin’
bitch,” Drew muttered under his breath.

“Excuse
me? You’ve got something you need to say?”

He
wouldn’t look at me. I’d always thought there was something wrong with having
to discipline a younger sibling. Perhaps I should have taken pleasure in it,
but I didn’t. It wasn’t the same as fighting with him or picking on him, both
of which were within my rights as his older sister. But discipline? It was a
little too much like mothering and felt like a responsibility I shouldn’t have
to deal with. I resented it. Big time. I’d always wanted to be the cool older
sister that everyone liked, not a nagging pain in the ass. Like everything else
in my life, however, I sucked it up and did what I had to do. Nagging pain in
the ass it would have to be.

“Since
when is it OK for you to be drinking?” I pulled away from the curb.

Drew
sat in the passenger seat with his arms crossed, scowling. “I can do whatever
the fuck I want.”

“Um,
language. And no. No, you can’t.”

“Shut
it, will you? You’re always up my ass about something.”

“You’re
sixteen. That’s way too young to be partying with a bunch of
twenty-somethings.” I glanced at him sideways, but he wasn’t even facing me.

“So
what? I’m not the only person my age who drinks. Besides, I was hangin’ with
the guys from the band, and that’s what they do.”

“Well,
you won’t be hangin’ with them anymore.”

“You
can’t stop me.”

“Wanna
bet?”

He
didn’t say anything else the rest of the ride home. We pulled into the driveway
at the side of our house. I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and yanked him back
before he could walk to the door.

“Promise
me you’ll lay low for a while. No more partying and coming and going whenever
you feel like it. Dad’s really stressed and you’re not helping anything.”

Drew
jerked himself out of my grasp and stalked into the house. I knew there was no
reasoning with him. Unfortunately, just because I got to act like his mother
didn’t mean he listened to anything I said. So I did the next best thing: went
right to Daddy and told him about everything Drew had done.

I
went to bed agitated. It was one thing to catch Drew smoking or drinking with a
couple other high school kids, but this was different. Those weren’t teenagers
at that party. What was Drew getting himself into? And more importantly, who
the hell was this Jack guy, and what did he want with my younger brother?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nessie is a
Massachusetts native and mother of two who has dabbled in everything from
abstract painting to freelance sports reporting. She also loves a good story,
whether it’s reading or writing one. Active membership in a writer’s critique
group has helped erase the memory of two horribly written practice novels.
LIVING DEAD GIRL is her first real novel.

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About Me

Hi, My name is Sandra, though for my blog I go by an adaptation of my middle name, Jeanz! I live in the UK, started blogging in Aug 2011. I have always loved books!. If a blurb catches my eye I will usually give reading it a go!

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